Construction of a modern multi-purpose offshore supply vessel (project H385) to RS class has begun in Singapore. The steel cutting ceremony was held at the Keppel Singmarine Pte Ltd shipyard on 20 June 2014.
The ceremony was attended by LUKOIL-NizhnevolzhskNeft Deputy Director General Yuri Berkut and Senior Adviser to the ambassador of the Russian Federation to Singapore on Trade and Economic Relations Alexey Dakhnovsky.
Construction of the vessel, which was designed in compliance with high safety standards, is being carried out under the RS survey at the request of LUKOIL. If construction is performed in compliance with all applicable international conventions and RS rules, it will be assigned the class notation KM ✪ Arc5 AUT1 ICS FF3WS DYNPOS-2 Supply Vessel. The vessel is to be used during the implementation of projects to develop the Vladimir Filanovsky and Yuri Korchagin fields in the northern part of the Caspian Sea.
The Keppel Nantong Shipyard in China is currently building two similar supply vessels. Compared with these, this vessel will be used mainly for 24-hour patrols in the areas where hydrocarbon production is underway and to perform rescue operations, including firefighting, dealing with spills and other work to ensure the safe development of offshore deposits. The presence of high-category ice strengthening will allow the vessel to operate efficiently during both summer and winter.